The present invention relates generally to computer data communications, and more particularly to communications protocols providing enhanced capabilities for modems.
Computers use various networking and data communications techniques to transmit information from one computer to another over a network. A typical network includes a series of interconnected data communications devices that can each exchange data from one device to another, enabling the exchange of information. In a typical computer networking application, source and destination computers are personal computers, workstations, servers, or the like, which each include a modem or other transmitter/receiver that is used to establish a connection to the network and transmit/receive information from computer to computer.
Modem connections typically are established using a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”). These connections are bandwidth limited and transmit times can become exceedingly long when large amounts of information are transmitted. Data compression techniques exist to reduce the amount of data transferred, many are based upon the Lempel-Ziv (“LZ”) family of compression algorithms (e.g., V.42bis) or Huffman coding techniques (e.g., MNP5). Additionally, other enhanced capabilities for modems, such as encryption, are desirable. This is especially true as wireless/cellular modems are increasingly used for the transmission of confidential data. Other time sensitive operations (e.g., protocol negotiations) can be improved by modems with enhanced capabilities.